Homecoming
by MCalhen
Summary: Kiyotaka has finally returned home. How does Madoka react after all this time, and all that she has dicovered? Contains complete MANGA spoilers all 15 volumes. And lots of KiyoMado fluff. Yay!


Disclaimer: I do not own Spiral; nonetheless I spend most of my free time obsessing about it. Spiral belongs to Eita Mizuno (art) and Kyo Shirodaira (story). Oh, let's not forget Square Enix…

Author's note: I beg you not to read further if you have no desire to be spoiled. This contains spoilers all the way through to the VERY END OF the manga. So if you choose to read this, I will NOT be held responsible for spoiling anything… Ignore the insane amounts of fluff I added to it; Mushy really likes KiyoMado.

Part One

She stared out the window of the hospital, hugging her knees up to her chest. Everything about the contents of the envelope had bothered her, and the more she realized what was going on, the more it made her heart clench in her chest. How many tears had she spent now? Still, with the condition of her health and the events going on around her, it seemed like having a good cry earlier had been all she could do.

If she wasn't so exhausted already, she might have actually hunted Kiyotaka down – he had been RIGHT under her nose, in this very hospital, and she hadn't even seen him. Did this mean that Kiyotaka Narumi had finally come home? Her fingers tightened around the fabric of her hospital pants. Part of her was afraid of these months they'd been apart. She tried to understand; really she did, but…

"Ugh, I can't understand what I'm supposed to do anymore, Kiyotaka!" She hissed under her breath, her throat burning and her eyes watering. Praying for Ayumu to be all right, praying for Kiyotaka to be all right – that's all she was able to do. After all, her husband had been gone far too long, and she missed him. It was selfish, but she wanted to see that bastard.

_Am I really that dependent on him_? She wondered.

No matter how strong a person she was, she was lonely.

"And it sucks to be stuck in a hospital all alone," Madoka complained out loud to herself.

Part 2

Her muscles were sore from being confined to the hospital bed too long, and as she woke up she remembered this. She'd spent more hours than she would have liked sleeping in that hospital bed, and all there was to do was sleep. Her shoulders were particularly uncomfortable; they were still trying to heal from the multiple knife wounds they'd received during the school shoot out at Ayumu's school.

The sun was beginning to set behind the tall buildings of the city and it alarmed her that Ayumu hadn't returned. Just what was he doing, now that she knew he was to confront his own brother, her husband? She bit her lip. She realized at this point, with how everything was coming together (or was it falling apart?), that Kiyotaka or Ayumu might end up dead.

To top it all off, she had found out Ayumu was Kiyotaka's clone.

She hadn't really dwelled on it. She'd heard so many things in the last 24 hours that it was boggling her brain. One minute she gets a letter from her long lost husband, next Ayumu is taking off to confront him, and before that Hizumi had taken a jump off some building in Tokyo. She'd caught up on a lot when Kirie and Eyes stopped by for a "visit." It was more like a really grave meeting between the three of them.

Apparently her brother-in-law had taken it upon himself, before going to confront Hizumi, to tie Eyes up at their house. Madoka couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed by the idea that in the home of police detectives, one of the world's most famous pianists had been tied up to their table. It just struck her as odd, but then, she had been brought into something far beyond her career. Her marriage to Kiyotaka had inevitably meant that she would also become a part of this whirlwind of events.

Though she knew it may be foolish, she had faith in Kiyotaka, and she had faith in Ayumu. Wherever this was going to lead her, she trusted that Kiyotaka meant for nothing bad to happen to her – although she was sitting in a hospital bed. Then again, she might have been sitting in the same hospital bed even without Kiyotaka – she had been called out to the school as part of her job.

She knew about the death of Kanone Hilbert as well. After being under house arrest, he had been murdered. Ayumu wouldn't even talk about it, and she wasn't stupid enough to bring it up. Instead, Wataya had told her during a visit that he was dead. She hadn't asked many details; she knew if she did, she might be asked questions in return. Madoka knew better than to bring it up to Kirie and Eyes, too.

She let out a sigh. The room was practically dark now, and she thought about getting up and turning on the light. After all, there wasn't any use in just sitting in the dark – she'd just fall back to sleep all over again. What else was there to do in a hospital? She should have made Ayumu bring in her Playstation 2 and hook it up to the TV – she could have gone for a decent video game. At least it would have kept her from thinking about what her husband and brother-in-law were doing at that very moment. What she needed was a good distraction from her thoughts.

Was it all right that she had fallen victim to selfish hoping? That if Kiyotaka were close enough to deliver a letter, than maybe he might show up and see her?

_I know now, a little bit more than when you left, why you couldn't stay, Kiyotaka._

_Even so…_ _Something feels so final about all of this. The answers to the questions aren't being closed in on, but I feel like some of this ordeal might finally be over. _

Her eyes closed while she rested her chin against one of her knees and tried to think of silly things to keep her mind distracted. Video games she might like to be playing at that moment, beers she'd like to be drinking while she was sitting comfortably at home, and Ayumu's delicious food she'd like to be consuming, instead of the hospital junk they kept serving her up every day.

Madoka wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there with her eyes closed when a hand brushed up against her back in the darkness. Instantly, she jerked upward, putting her weight on her left arm and swing up her right hip to deliver a kick to the intruder's gut. The grunt/chuckle that followed was male…and distinctly familiar.

"Kiyotaka?" She whispered hopefully under her breath, and the lights switched on. Instead of revealing the identity of the person she had just kicked, she was suddenly blinded by the light and had to close her eyes.

Finally her eyes adjusted and she was able to see the face of her intruder. She took in the tall form she recognized as her husband, noting that he'd grown out his brown hair and pulled it back in a ponytail. Two years worth of her not being able to get onto him about a haircut, she supposed. He was smirking up at her while playfully making note of her kicking him in the stomach by wrapping his arms around his middle and bending slightly.

"You know, your kicks still hurt," He said, amused.

She was speechless. Behind Kiyotaka, she noticed Ayumu standing quietly in the doorway. She felt herself relax a little, but not too much – from what she could see of her brother-in-law, he was bothered. But she couldn't help but be thankful that at least both of them were there, safe…

Her husband sat himself in the chair at her bedside and with a smile, took her left hand with both of his. His fingers played a little with the wedding ring that Madoka always wore loyally while he reached up and kissed her on the lips. It was the perfect moment until Madoka noticed out of the corner of her eyes her brother-in-law glance awkwardly away from the two of them before swiftly turning on his heel and retreating down the hospital corridors. She closed her eyes and pulled away her lips from Kiyotaka's.

Without her saying anything, Kiyotaka seemed to know what was on his wife's mind.

"He'll be all right soon…" Kiyotaka said tersely. Madoka's eyes snapped open and surveyed her husband critically.

The hand Kiyotaka held clenched and he felt the fingernails dig deep into his palms. Madoka's eyes narrowed at her husband.

"I know there is so much I still don't understand, and you're probably thinking I'm going to make you explain it – and you will in time." She swallowed the lump building up in her throat as her eyes began to water. "But right now, I just want to know if you're staying. You can explain all the details of what went on tonight, and what's been going on since before we were married at some other time. There's only so much I can hear from other people and I have to hear the rest from you. I know you'll explain it all to me, so I'll wait."

Her hand had relaxed again and Kiyotaka pulled one of his hands away so he could prop his elbow on the arm of his chair. He stared silently at the hospital wall while he absentmindedly stroked her hand. With a deep breath, Madoka let her back rest against the pillows propped up behind her and relaxed. The touch of her husband was reassuring, after all this time of his being gone, but there was still some tension in the air. She knew it was coming, but neither of them knew how to handle it.

"I apologize for putting you through all this, Madoka," Kiyotaka finally said, looking back to his wife.

Apologies, when well meant, were never easy to put into words, and they always created discomfort for Madoka. She was glad to hear him say it, but she didn't know what to say in return. She knew he couldn't necessarily control everything, but he was at fault for not even coming to see her, or contacting her. It was something she was learning to accept about Kiyotaka, but it didn't mean he could get away with it. She loved him, and it had made her depressed when he had left. He didn't even bother to call back to talk to her later, or reach her cell phone, when he took off – Ayumu was the one who picked up the phone and Kiyotaka had just left his message with Ayumu.

There were so many mixed emotions tumbling around within her heart, realizing that she was still upset, but that she wanted to forgive. At the moment, she was thankful to have him back, but she wanted to scold him for making her worry while she wanted to go home and feel the comfort of his arms around her shoulders.

Oddly enough, the best part of that seemed to be getting out of the hospital.

"Kiyotaka, find me a way out of her," She said. "If I have to stay here another day…I just want to go home."

Her husband smiled, his eyes twinkling mischievously.

"Let's not rush the healing process, Madoka…" He began, ignoring her sharp glare. "The doctors want you to stay a little longer. However, I will be leaving shortly – Ayumu's likely going to fix an excellent dinner and I have to be there to enjoy it…"

"Why you!" She hissed, annoyed. Kiyotaka laughed when his wife latched onto his arm, as if could keep him sat in that chair until he agreed to her terms.

"I could always sneak you in some of the dinner when I come back tomorrow," Kiyotaka told her with a wink. "Visiting hours are coming to an end for the night. The nurses will be coming in to shoo me away in a few minutes."

That meant Kiyotaka would leave, and while Madoka knew she didn't want him to leave (at least, not without her damn it), she nodded in acceptance. When he stood up, his fingers gently went to her cheek, stroking it affectionately. They were normally not too affectionate in public, and so she was a taken a little off guard by the strength of his good-bye kiss. Usually their good-bye kisses in the past had been nothing more than a gentle brush against each other's lips, but this time he passionately pressed to her, savoring the taste of her warm lips.

"Goodnight, Madoka," Kiyotaka called to her as he lifted his head to turn and go. It was just in time too – a nurse had just walked, opening her mouth and beginning to say something before she realized he was leaving. Madoka hardly noticed while the nurse checked her over and even drew her blood. She stared at the doorway where Kiyotaka had disappeared through, still in a daze from his unusually loving but familiar tasting kiss.

Suddenly, she felt the relaxation rush through her like a calm wave, and was prepared to go back to bed to face the morning. The morning when she would get to see her husband again, and best of all – she could skip hospital meals and enjoy Ayumu's cooking that Kiyotaka had promised to sneak in for her.

Tomorrow sounded like a promisingly bright day for her.


End file.
